


Riptide

by 48eyesand32teeth1sharptongue



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, But I do what I want, Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, I just can't get my brain to work with me, I'm gonna probably add Gabriel and Michael isn't in this yet but that's on my todo list, I'm not marking that on everything but assume SPN is not being written in general, I'm on hiatus for all my spn stuff, Lucifer's Cage Discussion, M/M, S15E19 Spoilers, Sam and Cas are Jack's Dads, Trans Sam Winchester, WIP, and also entirely different, but I make it horror, fixit for some plot continuity but not really fix it otherwise, i am writing this one sentence at a time out of order and nothing can stop me, this is 2 sentences right now but I will write something
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:55:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27554959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/48eyesand32teeth1sharptongue/pseuds/48eyesand32teeth1sharptongue
Summary: Sam has trouble holding on to hope under a set of very specific circumstances.(AKA The boys have to deal with an Apocalypse... 5.0? And a hostage situation.)
Relationships: Castiel & Jack Kline, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Jack Kline & Sam Winchester, Lucifer/Sam Winchester, Michael/Adam Milligan
Comments: 9
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay after re-watching parts of Swan Song, Abandon All Hope, parts of S7 and S13, I think I've got a better angle for Lucifer in this mix. (I don't have a problem with evil sassy Lucifer but he's got to have that regality behind the sass and pettiness. Not... whatever the fuck Bucklemming gave us. S7+ Lucifer has a specific set of parameters to veil the abusive obsessive possessive horror of S5 under the surface and I am going to do it justice however fucking slowly it takes me.)
> 
> Also, I miss the stakes of earlier seasons, comparing them to current stuff still makes me sad. Also I miss the supernatural feeling regal even if the stakes got nerfed by necessity. But I will say that for a bucklemming episode, the fact it ended pretty happy was great. Like, the show needs that, and while I still want some things to happen, the fact they even had the boys be okay and Jack not dead was great because dying for no reason except angst is stupid, so I am glad bucklemming gave us that if nothing else.
> 
> In other news WHO LEFT JACK ALONE WITH LUCIFER FOR THAT ONE SCENE? We're not doing that Sam ain't leaving Jack in a room alone with him and the writers can catch these hands.
> 
> Fic title a song by Grandson.

Dean runs up the stairs, only to find the absolute last person he wants to see waving from behind the door, and promptly slams it shut.

Unfortunately, this does not serve to keep an Archangel out.

"Wow." Lucifer whistles, appearing with his hands clasped together. "And here I thought we were past all this. I mean, I brought you a housewarming gift and everything-" Lucifer claps, and Cas appears in a bloody mess on the floor, unconscious. "You're welcome."

"CAS-" Dean yells, and rushes down the stairs.

Lucifer holds up a hand, throwing Dean backwards into the railing, his other fist still gathered around the back of Castiel's neck as he dangles him like bait.

"Ah, ah, ah, lover-boy. You want your precious little angel fully online and in one piece, you play by my rules. And I want in. No takesy-backsies."

"Sure you do." Sam hisses in a shaky breath as makes his presence known, and attempts to make his telltale swallow-flinch as unobtrusive as possible.

(He fails miserably on that front.)

Lucifer glances over at Sam, his indulgent smile turned up at the edges.

It doesn't meet his eyes.

(No, those blue eyes he took from Nick were all business, and promising Hell to pay, like Sam knows all too well.)

"Oh, don't be like that. Word around the block says you are in the up-and-coming business of ruining Dad's day, and while I'm not surprised, I, for one, would like a slice of the proverbial pie."

"Why?" Sam manages. He keeps checking on Dean and Cas from the periphery, knowing the danger there, and still keeping Jack guarded with his body, however much that will do anything, as Lucifer eyes him up and down.

"C'mon Sammy, I've always thrown a wrench in things, you know that. And this is my Dad we're talking about, if anyone's going to try and level the playing field, well, say no more. And as far as throwing my lot in with you... I can't say it's my favorite past-time, ahem," Lucifer clears his throat, posture straightening in some mocking veneer of concern, "We all know how Dean and I get along. But I can't deny that you get results, even with all the collateral you can't help but rack up in the meantime. Bang up job you're doing, by the way. World seems even better than it ever was after you left Dad to redecorate. I wonder why..." Lucifer's smile grows wider, a hand twitching as he makes a sweeping gesture. "Must be the whole _fen shui_ of having finally committed to real pest control..."

Sam steps back on autopilot, but keeps his head held high.

"How are you even alive?" Sam snarls with a vitriol and daring he didn't know he still had left. (But there is so much he is angry about, so much history he can't keep down because it's all too apparent how ready it is to crush him, and Sam seesaws between what horrible question is worse, the manner of his resurrection or what might possibly come next.)

Lucifer rolls his shoulders. "You sound surprised. Really, Sammy, I'm sure you already have an idea... But for dumb and dumber, I guess I'll bite. See, Nick here, for all his faults, did manage to wake me up. And once little Jackie lit the place up like the Fourth of July, let's just say me and Cassie had an easy escape route once I wedged my foot in the door. You know how I feel about cosmic confinement. And I wasn't going to let that ever get in my way again... By the way, great work, son. I always knew you had it in you..."


	2. ignore this im posting wippy sentences to force myself to write things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is not a chapter this is me trying to get my stupid idea to cooperate with me because I had a whole scene ready to go at 7 am but I was too tired to write it and then I fell asleep before work and forgot everything except what I scribbled down in like... three sentences. so have some lucifer dialogue I haven't finished to try and make myself write this thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway in other news Lucifer is and always will be a jumped up homicidal ecoterrorist who doesn't like confined spaces and he's not happy God raptured all the animals... and that's the only common ground he and Jack will have ever. mentally he's still got the bitterness of an angry teenager rejected by his Dad but that's a given with his issues that never got resolved because immediately Chuck faked him out in S12 with more abandonment so Lucifer is just over all that while not being over anything (and that means everyone else around him suffers because that's how Lucifer rolls anyway).
> 
> I'll fix this mess later. idk when and I promise nothing because that's how things get done.

"I never did anything wrong. But seeing as it was you who cast me as the original adversary, I have to say, pops- I think I played it better. What do you say, Sam, would you and the peanut gallery back me up there?"

\--

"Dad said he never thought I was the villain. And I mean, that meant something, maybe, if he gave a damn. But if you get punished for doing nothing wrong either way, the whole speech falls a bit flat. That, and while I won't knock Dad for his big ideas... His parenting methods left a lot to be desired."

"And if he was going to set fire to all his hard work, his precious little humans, the whole shebang- well, he locked me away for millennia for telling him he should do just that. And I'm just supposed to accept it with a pat on my head and a neglectful nod? Say it ain't so."

\--

"I liked grasshoppers and sharks and flesh-eating amoebas. Did you really have to get rid of all those?"

Chuck's eyes flash.

"It's about sending a message." Chuck grits out.

Lucifer holds up his arms in mock surrender, not hiding how he rolls his eyes. 

"My mistake. You have something to prove to these sorry specimens. I should've realized that Dean Winchester's opinion mattered so much on the whole 'ecological instability' front."

"The point is they can't save everyone."

"Hah, big whoop. Like they haven't realized that's been a losing battle for a long time now."

\--

"I can't believe you. You aren't the Dad I know. Or maybe you are, but I've... I've outgrown you. See... You made yourself unworthy of your best creations. You scrapped it all to one up them. And I finally get out and don't get to enjoy the earth because they pissed you off? I don't think so."

"Don't take that tone with me."

"What are you going to do, smite me? Throw me in the Pit again? Sorry, Dad, it's just... once you run out of threatening punishments the whole 'self-righteous wrath of an angry omnipotent force' kinda loses it's edge. And it's not like I'm a yes-man like Mikey over there. Sure, he says he grew a backbone, let's see how long that lasts, but me? I've been telling you when your ideas don't hold water ever since the beginning. And if that's how you want to bring the point on home, be my guest. But I was under the impression that was beneath you, by now. And it would be counter-intuitive to what you're trying to do here."

"How so?"

"I may be the family disappointment, but the fact still stands- you need me. I'm your entertainment. I'm creative. And you let me loose? Well, I think you'll find your voyeuristic HBO front row seats to their suffering a bit less dull, truth be told, not to mention how boring it would be if they just went belly up and rolled over for you out the gate. Me, fighting you, and being up in their business? Two for two, you aren't going to be bored any time soon. I can promise that."

\--

Lucifer winks at Sam.

"Don't worry. I mean, you know how much he likes to watch."

"I mean, it took him eons to get bored of everything, but barring your little adventures with big bro over there, I'd say we have the best ratings and watch count of the lot. We did have a lot of good times downstairs for hundreds of years. Must've been his favorite channel to keep on backburner in between checking on Dean and his alcoholism."

\--

"Oh?" Lucifer sighs, and puzzles his face into the sneaky mock-innocence both Michael and Sam know is trouble. "I thought I misheard you. Don't you want Adam back?"

\--

"Of course I've got an axe to grind. The only person who threatens the disappointments that are my son, my true vessel, or my big brother, is _me_."

\--

"How's it feel, Sammy, to know you threw away everything you've ever done for nothing? All that trouble, spitting in my face, running the other direction, and for what? Saving undeserving lives for a few more years, countering apocalypse after apocalypse, to buy then a few short years of petty ignorance with your own special brand of suffering and martyrdom, only for you to fly too close to the sun and piss Dad off and undo it all anyway. You gotta get with the program by now, babe. We always end up here. Together again. And I know, deep down, part of you is grateful I'm calling the shots. It's not like either of you can be trusted with them, anymore. I mean, look what you've done to the place, just by being a bit too mouthy-"

"No-"

"No? I'm sorry, I must've misheard you."

\--

"See, the difference between him and me? Is I like it when you fight back. That's gotta count for something."

\--

"If he could walk out of the Empty after we all woke up, no reason why I couldn't do some hitchhiking of my own." Gabriel grumbles. "Although I have to wonder if Raphael managed to make his way out. It was becoming a bit of a free-for-all before the metaphysical door shut and everyone kept scrambling for the exit before the Empty did it's thing again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also i figured out where S15e19 went very very wrong (aside from how much it was already wrong)
> 
> Luci didn't want Chuck's approval
> 
> He wanted Michael to side with him against Chuck once he felt betrayed, and even when they are supposedly on the same side Michael still finds a way to be not on Lucifer's side anyway. But that's what he's always wanted- big bro to side with him against Dad, like Dean did for Sam and how much envy he has there
> 
> Sam's gets all the things Lucifer wants in roundabout ways and Lucifer hates it and hates that Sam rejected him because he views that as all his, and also because he still sees Sam as his because he's a narc
> 
> anyway moving on
> 
> i think the reason I get so pissed about how they characterize Lucifer is one:  
> S5 made him a terrifying and compelling and serious and semi-reserved villain
> 
> and he's always obfuscating. he hides behind layers of stuff to hide the bitterness and the vitriol and the evil and that's how he deflects blame and claims not to lie or not to need to lie even when he's still lying and using 'certain point of view lie of omission/willful misappropriation' logic.
> 
> and I feel like cheapening Lucifer as a gag or to try and make him not seem as evil as he is in the show not only does disservice to how amazingly he was portrayed and written in S5 in general, aside from how weighty he felt as a villain with stakes, but also cheapens Sam's triumphs from a surface level perception when people ignore what he's gone through
> 
> like when the audience sees Lucifer as nonthreatening or a joke or blah it makes his evil less of a gut punch and tries to cheapen how much Sam survived in canon and persevered through because the writer's don't like giving weight or care to Sam's later storylines
> 
> and that also pisses me off
> 
> like Lucifer can be cruel and vile and irreverent and evil and really good at projection/manipulation without sacrificing his other aspects and still be a loser and also horrifyingly competent in his evil. these things are not mutually exclusive. but later seasons defanged him overtly as much as they tried to write off Sam because the way they were misrepresented was the same writing flaws ruining things for their arcs. early season Lucifer was horrifying and competent and kinda manic and culty but had a more subdued edge but still feel more grounded than other archangels. later seasons had him be more overt in his evil narcissism and sadism and faux-affability, but shouldn't have sacrificed the competence or the subdued and bitter stuff beneath the veneers he carriers himself with or his motives. he can crack jokes and act mundane but still have that dead-eyed serial killer vibe beneath and still be insecure and needy and a mess but still horrifying on a supernatural level.
> 
> that's what make the portrayals nuanced and dynamic and interesting when it was all those things and not one-note or dismissive of what motivates Lucifer as a character, even if the execution will still lead to him being evil.
> 
> and also makes his interactions with sam so interesting despite how horrible it is for Sam

**Author's Note:**

> FOR LATER:
> 
> Sam was holding it together. Or at least, he really, really was trying.  
> But everyone is dead except for Jack, Dean, Cas, Michael, and Lucifer.  
> And that's a little bit too close to other mostly vacant expanses full of old memories Sam would not like to be re-living, which Lucifer is all too happy to give veiled reminders of.
> 
> \--  
> "You must be thrilled." Sam growls, hands balling into fists as he stares back.  
> Lucifer's lip curls, and he laughs.  
> "On the contrary. This was my job, not his."  
> Sam steps back as Lucifer stalks forwards, and Sam jumps when Lucifer slamming his hand on the table, however choreographed and predictable the rage remains.  
> "So Dad thinks he can take my dreams and crush them by taking them for himself, just like that? Hard pass. No, that... that wasn't his to take. That was ours, Sammy. Ours. Even if you got cold feet. Even if you think you've gone and buried it all six hundred feet deep. And if Dad thinks he could lock me away for millennia just to kill the very things he cast me away for, and think that absolves him? Well, it's like he said. Too little, too late. And if we're going to inherit the earth... Well, bunk buddy... It's gonna be ours again. Just like our little cozy bungalow we made down under. Even if pops just likes watching all the things I'd do to you... Unless, of course, you think that's not kosher for Jack's virgin eyes. I'm open to negotiation, even after all the stunts you pulled... I'm generous, like that. Wouldn't you agree?"


End file.
